Bus lanes create better buses. The region needs more.

If you imagine the future of transportation, what vehicle comes to mind? The space shuttle, a flying car, the hyperloop? What about the bus?

For the 600,000 of us who ride a bus every day in the Washington region, the bus is familiar. The first buses arrived in the District a century ago, in 1921. They were heralded as the future of transportation. Within 50 years, the bus displaced the sprawling streetcar system and by 1976 the region had 60 miles of dedicated bus lanes.

By 1976, however, the car was king. Dedicated bus lanes were removed to add lanes for cars, ignoring the effects of induced demand, the phenomenon where when the supply increases more of that good is consumed. In the case of transportation, building more infrastructure for private vehicles induces more people to drive, making congestion worse, harming business productivity, diminishing quality of life, and creating an unsustainable fiscal growth trajectory.

Rather than build streets exclusively for cars, imagine if our streets prioritized vehicles that move the most people, better connecting more residents of all incomes to jobs, school and health care appointments. With the right infrastructure decisions, we can create faster, more reliable buses, increase their competitiveness and allow more people to rely on the bus. Peer regions around the country, and our own history, show that the bus can deliver the results we need with the right political support.

If you build it, they will come

Just as building infrastructure for cars enables and induces more driving, prioritizing infrastructure for buses makes buses faster, more reliable, and grows ridership. When more people choose to use transit, those who choose to drive see benefits as well, through reduced congestion, less delays, and faster access to essential destinations.

In the last decade, Seattle spent the most per capita of large metro areas on new transit projects. As would be expected, Seattle also saw the largest decline in the share of people driving alone to work and the largest drop in car ownership, saving families $9,000 per year in car related costs. This means people in Seattle have more options to get to work and travel around the region. But Seattle is not slowing down. Last year, the mayor set a goal to add 90 new blocks of dedicated bus lanes by the end of 2020.

Responding to calls from advocates like the Bus Turnaround Campaign, New York City is also prioritizing the bus. The city released an action plan to combat declining bus ridership and the Mayor committed to install 10-15 miles of bus lanes per year. Launched in 2019, New York’s “busway” on 14th Street decreased travel times 30% and grew ridership 17% on weekdays and 37% on Saturdays.

But it is not just big cities that have found ways to rethink the bus. After a system redesign and the creation of the Pulse Bus Rapid Transit line with dedicated bus lanes and all-day frequent service, Richmond saw 17% growth in ridership in one year.

60 miles by 2025

The MetroNow Coalition formed in 2018 to ensure that action was taken to put Metro on a safe, smart and sustainable path forward, which resulted in a historic $500 million annual funding deal between the District, Maryland and Virginia. In 2019, the coalition doubled down on their commitment to transit by focusing on how to reverse the decline of the Washington region’s bus system and turn it into a thriving asset that is competitive with other options. MetroNow is calling the region to build 60 miles of dedicated bus lanes by 2025 among other recommendations. Today, the region has about six miles of dedicated bus lanes, compared to more than 111 miles in New York City, 40 miles in Seattle, and 6.4 lane miles in Richmond.

A ten-fold increase may seem ambitious, but the region had 60 miles of bus lanes in the 1970s and can build them again. New York City alone plans to build 10-15 miles a year. 60 miles represents less than 0.5% percent of the roadways in DC, Montgomery County, Prince George’s, Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun, and Fairfax County. While the 16th Street bus lanes have taken years of planning and are not yet built, the H & I bus lanes started as a $10,000 pilot and are now permanent, improving the lives of more than 50,000 daily riders that use the many bus routes that traverse H & I.

The region needs to work together to prioritize and fast-track bus lanes where they are most needed. The MetroNow Coalition encourages the region’s leaders to work together to deploy more quick-build pilots, like H & I, that prioritize high-ridership bus routes through congested corridors.

Enforce the lane

Bus lanes cannot work without a bus lane culture. Drivers, from delivery trucks to ride-hails, must respect the bus lane, and transportation agencies must do their part to provide reasonable accommodations for these vehicles. If this breaks down, private vehicles park and occupy bus lanes making them worthless and delaying the trips of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of bus riders. Creating awareness about the importance of bus lanes around Greater Washington will require a cultural shift as well as the right enforcement policies and technology. Regional departments of transportation and elected leaders should work together to standardize bus lane enforcement policies across the metro area.

As an example of inconsistent policy, look to the Metroway bus rapid transit line between Alexandria and Arlington. Approximately two-thirds of the dedicated bus lanes in the region are located along the Metroway, yet the two jurisdictions have different enforcement policies. According to Alexandria code, improper use of a bus or HOV lane carries a first offense of $125, increasing to $1,000 by the fourth offense. Whereas the Arlington County code has one set of restrictions for “commuter lanes” and another for “transitway lanes”. Improper use of a commuter lane carries a fine between $10 and $50 while improper use of a transitway lane carries a fine of $200. The average driver is unlikely to know the distinction between types of lanes let alone when they cross between Alexandria and Arlington. Standardization of enforcement policies will make it easier for drivers to understand and adopt bus lane culture.

Automated enforcement, with cameras directly on the bus, allows for consistent enforcement without adding large operating expenses or draining police resources. Besides the District, Washington area leaders have not taken public steps to study or implement these programs. Meanwhile, peers in New York rolled out on-bus camera enforcement on select routes last year and have seen increased bus speeds as a result of the program. New York’s 2020-2024 Capital Program plans to retrofit more than half of their existing fleet with bus lane enforcement technology. Leaders need to ensure the right legislation is in place to allow for automated enforcement across jurisdictions as well as the sound procurement of enforcement technology. Thankfully, the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board already commissioned a study that outlines how the region could implement effective bus lane enforcement strategies. Aligning behind this effort should be a top priority for jurisdictions and agencies in 2020.

The future of transportation

Imagine a future where transit speeds you to your destination, reliably and on time, easing congestion, reducing pollution and creating a more equitable transportation system where employers have access to a wider range of the workforce, coworkers are not stuck in traffic late to meetings, and everyone can choose to travel around the region with or without a car. The bus can help deliver that future.

To make that future a reality, we need our local elected officials to prioritize the bus. The MetroNow Coalition urges the region to build 60 miles of bus lanes by 2025. The time to act is now. The first step is to identify priority corridors. While we wait for the bus lanes to be striped, we must build the bus lane culture. That will take all of us to encourage each other to respect the lane, encourage our leaders to draft consistent policies, and our transit agencies to purchase the technology that enables the most effective enforcement. The future is not far off, we just need to move together.

This is the first in a series of articles expanding upon the MetroNow Coalition’s Better Bus Campaign which calls the region to action to deliver a network of frequent and reliable bus service across the Washington region.